10 Awful Movie Death Retcons EVERYONE Hated

Spock's (Leonard Nimoy) death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is one of the most brilliantly executed and downright affecting in all of cinema, his sacrificial demise ending the film on a deeply bittersweet note.

During post-production on The Wrath of Khan, however, hints to Spock's possible revival were added into the film following negative test screening reactions to his death, namely the scene where Spock's casket lands on the new Genesis planet and his hopeful closing voiceover narration.

All the same, and even with Spock cryptically performing a mind-meld with Bones (DeForest Kelley) moments before his death, Spock felt truly dead.

Yet in the next film, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, we learn that Spock isn't really dead in the way we think - rather, his katra (aka life force) is contained within the mind of Bones following the aforementioned mind meld, leading to him eventually being brought back to life.

Back when the mind meld happened in The Wrath of Khan, however, the filmmakers didn't know what they were going to do with the third film. It was an ambiguous enough moment that they could figure out the details later, and ultimately they used it to bring Spock back.

Sure, Spock is a beloved enough character that few truly loathed seeing him back in The Search for Spock, but cancelling out his demise did nevertheless hugely cheapen the emotional impact of his death in the previous film.

Ultimately it was the moving of the goalposts which rubbed many the wrong way. Oh, you thought death meant something for Vulcans? Nah.